Ch. 7726 May
Outside the Alchemy Alliance, Yan stretched as soon as she stepped through the entrance and let out a long breath.
"Finally done with all that bureaucratic nonsense."
Alexei looked up from where he had been waiting with Qingxue. "So you passed?"
"Obviously." Yan pulled out a new jade badge and tossed it in her hand. The material alone looked far more expensive than the previous one.
Qingxue smiled faintly. "Congratulations on your advancement."
"Thanks."
The group started heading toward the docking platforms where their spirit vessel was waiting. Partway there, Alexei noticed another set of footsteps following behind them at a strangely consistent distance. When he glanced back, he recognized the girl from the examination hall.
He slowed and looked at her. "Why are you following us?"
The girl stopped, crossing her arms as she lifted her chin. "I'm not following you. Don't flatter yourself."
"You've been behind us for the last two blocks."
"That's called coincidence."
"We turned left twice and went through a side street that only leads to the docking platforms."
"I like walking around."
Alexei stared at her for a moment, then looked over at Yan. "Is she serious right now?"
Yan stepped forward and crouched so she was closer to the girl's height.
"What's your name?"
The girl's expression changed so quickly it was almost impressive.
"Liang Ying. Liang as in kindness. Ying is..." She paused awkwardly and frowned to herself. "Actually, I don't know how to explain that properly. It's from an old poem."
Yan's expression shifted slightly when she heard the name. "Liang Ying? Are you related to Elder Liang Xin?"
Ying nodded. "He's my grandfather."
Yan finally understood why the name sounded familiar.
During her two years at the Verdantree Alchemy Alliance, she had heard quite a few people talk about Elder Liang's granddaughter. The girl was supposedly a rare alchemy genius, but her cultivation talent was so poor that many alchemists had privately lamented it on her behalf.
A low-grade mystic spirit root was barely considered passable in the Eastern Territories. Under normal circumstances, someone with talent like that would struggle just to maintain basic cultivation, let alone advance smoothly. Yet Elder Liang doted on his granddaughter to an absurd degree and had apparently poured an enormous amount of resources into her cultivation over the years, forcibly pushing her all the way into early Qi Refining.
For any ordinary cultivator with an earth spirit root, those same resources would probably have been enough to reach Core Formation already, perhaps even Spirit Condensation.
Now that she looked more carefully, the girl's aura did seem slightly unstable, as though her cultivation had been raised through external means.
Still, considering her talent, that was probably unavoidable.
"It's getting late," Yan said as she rubbed the girl's head. "Your grandfather is probably waiting for you by now, so we should head back to the vessel too."
Ying looked disappointed at the reminder, though she tried not to show it too obviously. Her eyes moved between Yan and Alexei for a moment before she finally nodded.
"I should go."
Even then, Ying didn't leave right away. She lingered near the street corner for a moment, slowly backing away while pretending not to stare at them. Only after putting some distance between herself and the group did she finally turn around and hurry off into the crowd, though she still kept glancing back over her shoulder every few steps.
Alexei watched her disappear into the sea of people before shaking his head with a sigh. "She really doesn't know how to act subtle."
Qingxue looked amused. "She reminds me of someone."
Alexei gave her a suspicious look. "You mean me, don't you?"
Qingxue simply smiled back at him, which answered the question well enough.
By the time they returned to the docking platform, the sun had already started sinking behind the city walls. Duan and Jianqiang were standing beside the spirit vessel speaking with Quan, but the conversation trailed off as soon as they noticed the group approaching.
"Yan." Quan greeted her with a nod. "Congratulations on your advancement."
---
Their time in Verdantree City had finally come to an end, and Alexei was more than ready to leave. It wasn't that sect life was especially enjoyable since the politics were still exhausting and the hierarchy still made no sense to him, but at least back at the sect he had his own space and didn't have to spend every other day dealing with Alchemy Alliance procedures and paperwork.
Duan and Jianqiang's search for materials had only been partially successful. After weeks of going through Artificer's Guild warehouses and contacting suppliers across the Eastern Territories, they had managed to gather three of the metals Alexei needed from the Profound Sky Continent: Profound Heavy Gold, Silver Radiance Iron, and Cloud Essence.
Most of the difficulty, according to Duan, came from the way the major clans controlled the ore market. Valuable mines throughout the Eastern Territories were almost entirely monopolized by large families who restricted supply to keep prices inflated. The Artificer's Guild technically stocked a wide variety of ores, but most of what actually circulated on the market was common material like iron, copper, silver, gold, and black iron. Even black iron, which was only useful for low-grade artifacts, cost far more than it reasonably should have.
Duan had complained about it constantly during the search. At one point he mentioned that the old Sect Master used to compare Eastern Territory prices to selling luxury goods in a starving village. Alexei wasn't entirely sure how accurate the comparison was, but the meaning behind it was obvious enough. Everything here was absurdly expensive.
Because of that, gathering enough Profound Heavy Gold and Silver Radiance Iron had taken far more effort than expected. Duan and Jianqiang had spent weeks traveling between different cities, buying small amounts from various suppliers until they finally pieced together enough to satisfy their requirements.
Cloud Essence, however, had come entirely by accident.
They had happened to arrive at the Verdantree Auction House just as someone was selling a naturally formed block of Cloud Essence over two cubic meters in size. The material was extremely light and flexible to the point where a strong gust of wind could blow it away, which made it surprisingly valuable as a supplementary material for artifact forging.
Small batches occasionally appeared on the market, but pieces this large were rare enough that Duan had joined the bidding.
The final price came out to 3,000 mid-grade spirit stones. That was more than many Foundation Establishment cultivators earned in an entire year, but he insisted it was still cheaper than trying to slowly buy the same amount in smaller quantities over time.
Along with the three primary metals, they also picked up several smaller materials, mostly crystals and trace elements. None of those mattered as much as the copper though.
He had managed to purchase nearly one hundred cubic meters of crude copper ore.
After everything was delivered to the rented warehouse, Alexei spent almost half the day sorting materials into his inventory.
With this much copper, he could finally produce ten or even twenty of the modified alchemy furnaces unlocked through More Crafting. Those furnaces automated almost the entire pill refinement process, turning alchemy from a skill-heavy craft into something much closer to large-scale production.
Automated alchemy was finally becoming realistic.
More importantly, it meant he was getting closer to a future where he would never need to personally refine pills again, and honestly, that alone made the entire trip feel worthwhile.
---
After collecting the day's earnings from the vessel's engine room, Alexei pocketed the spirit stones and headed back toward the common area. The Nether portal farm was still making money far faster than he had expected.
By the time he reached the common room, Qingxue was already seated at the table with several sheets of sect correspondence spread out in front of her.
She glanced up briefly when he entered. "Did you finish organizing the new materials?"
"Mostly. Duan's still sorting through the smaller batches." Alexei pulled out a chair and sat across from her. "When are we leaving?"
"Tomorrow, according to Quan. He wants to purchase a few more supplies before we depart."
Alexei nodded and leaned back in his chair.
The room soon fell quiet again. Qingxue returned to reading through the documents while he stared absentmindedly at the ceiling.
---
Early the next morning, Yan and the others packed their things and prepared to return to the Aureate Summit Sect. By the afternoon, everyone had already gathered aboard the spirit ship, and the crew was making the final checks before departure.
"Are we ready to leave?" Alexei asked as he walked over.
"Almost," Quan replied, though his expression looked slightly awkward. "There has been a small development."
The moment Alexei heard those words, he had a bad feeling.
"What kind of development?"
Before Quan could answer, Ying stepped out from behind him with an eager smile on her face.
"Surprise!"
Alexei stared at her for a few seconds before rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Please tell me this isn't what I think it is."
Quan gave him an apologetic look. "Elder Liang came personally about an hour ago and asked if we could bring his granddaughter back to the sect with us for a visit. I agreed to his request."
Ying looked extremely satisfied with herself while Alexei slowly turned toward Qingxue.
"Are we really bringing her along?"
Qingxue gave a small nod. "Elder Liang is one of the Alchemy Alliance's most influential figures in the Eastern Territories. Allowing his granddaughter to travel with us will improve our relationship with both him and the Alliance."
"So this is political."
Qingxue's faint smile deepened slightly. "Everything involving sects is political."
Alexei let out a tired sigh. "I really hate how often that turns out to be true."
"You'll get used to it eventually."
After talking a little longer, Alexei stretched and stood up from his seat. "I'm going to get some sleep before we leave. Let me know if the departure time changes."
"I will," Qingxue replied.
Alexei then made his way toward his room. After closing the door behind him, he sat down on the bed and opened his status screen out of habit.
The numbers had barely changed since the last time he checked.
With a quiet sigh, he dismissed the screen and leaned back against the bed.
---
The return journey to Aureate Summit Sect proceeded at full speed under Quan's control. They traveled through the entire night without stopping, crossing mountain ranges and cloud layers.
By the time the sect came into view the next morning, Ying was standing near the railing with a doubtful look on her face as she stared down at the snow-covered mountain below. Most of the sect grounds were buried beneath thick layers of snow, and only a handful of buildings could still be seen through the white landscape.
"This is Aureate Summit Sect?" she asked uncertainly.
Alexei glanced at her from where he was leaning against the side of the vessel. "Too late to regret joining now, kid."
Ying crossed her arms and huffed lightly. "I'm not regretting it. I just expected something a little more impressive."
Then she shot him an annoyed look. "And stop calling me kid. You're barely older than I am."
"Sure thing, Junior Sister Ying."
Her expression flattened instantly. "You're having way too much fun with this."
Before Alexei could respond, the spirit vessel suddenly tilted downward as Quan began the landing. Apparently, he considered normal descents unnecessary, because the vessel slammed onto the platform and sent snow exploding into the air before skidding sideways across the ground.
The defensive formation absorbed most of the impact, so nobody onboard was affected beyond a slight jolt, but Alexei still made a mental note to never trust Quan with transportation if he had any other option.
When they finally stepped off the vessel, Zhengxing was already waiting near the platform. Standing beside him was an elderly man with a warm smile that Alexei recognized almost instantly.
"Elder Hao?" Yan sounded surprised.
"Grandpa Hao?" Ying looked even more shocked.
The old man's smile widened slightly as he looked between them. "It's only been a few days. Surely you two haven't forgotten me already."
Zhengxing gave a cough before either of them could continue.
"Allow me to make a proper introduction. From today onward, Senior Danqing will serve as the Grand Patron of Aureate Summit Sect."
The words caused the atmosphere to change.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Yan stared at Zhengxing. "Grand Patron?"
Duan and Quan looked just as lost. They had only left the sect for a few days, yet somehow it had gained a Grand Patron while they were away.
Even Zhengxing still found the situation surreal.
The decision itself hadn't been difficult. With Alexei's circumstances, the smarter move would normally have been to avoid attracting attention and focus on steady development for the time being. But the name Danqing carried far too much significance for him to pretend otherwise.
Most cultivators in the Eastern Territories no longer remembered that name. The few who still did were either long dead or had already withdrawn from the world centuries ago. Zhengxing himself only knew of Danqing because his master had mentioned him during Yan's alchemy training more than once, usually with a level of respect he rarely showed anyone.
Danqing had once been known as the greatest genius of his generation.
If he remembered correctly, Danqing had stepped into late Tribulation Transcendence more than seven hundred years ago. As for what realm he stood in now, he didn't even want to guess.
The previous Sect Master hadn't handed Zhengxing the position simply because he was the eldest disciple. When it came to managing the sect, Quan had always been more capable.
But a sect master needed strength.
And among all the disciples, Zhengxing was stronger than the rest by an overwhelming margin.
Even so, strength was only part of the reason the old Sect Master trusted him with the position.
Since childhood, Zhengxing had been unusually good at reading people. He could never explain exactly how it worked, but over the years, his instincts had proven accurate more often than not. Whether someone hid malice, greed, ambition, or resentment, he could usually sense it sooner or later.
Yet when he looked at Danqing, he found none of those things.
The old man spoke and acted with almost ridiculous sincerity. Zhengxing couldn't sense the slightest trace of selfish intent from him. If anything, Danqing seemed concerned for the sect's future.
By this point, the others had mostly recovered from their earlier shock as well.
Since Zhengxing himself had accepted the arrangement, they were willing to trust his judgment too.
"But why would someone of your stature want to become a patron of our sect?" Yan still looked like she was trying to figure out where the catch was. "No offense, but we're not exactly an important power."
Danqing stroked his beard with a smile. "There's no hidden reason behind it. I simply want to find someone capable of inheriting my legacy."
Ying straightened. "Are you talking about me?"
The smile on Danqing's face faltered for a moment.
Ying's talent for alchemy truly was exceptional. Even he had to admit that she surpassed most geniuses he had seen over the years, and in terms of pure comprehension, she wasn't much worse than he had been in his youth. Unfortunately, her spiritual roots were simply too poor.
Years ago, as a favor to Elder Liang, he had personally refined medicinal solutions to improve her talent. Otherwise, with her original aptitude, reaching Qi Refining would have been difficult in the first place. Even after all that effort, however, her future path in alchemy still had clear limits because cultivation and soul strength ultimately formed the foundation of the Dao.
Under Ying's hopeful gaze, he suddenly coughed into his sleeve.
"About that..."
Then he raised a finger and pointed toward Alexei instead.
"Him."
Alexei had been standing off to the side watching the conversation. When the finger landed on him, he looked around once before pointing at himself.
"...Me?"
Ying's excitement deflated instantly. She turned away with a huff and grabbed onto Yan's arm. "I don't want your inheritance anyway. I already have a master."
Danqing's eye twitched slightly.
This girl changes moods faster than flipping pages in a book.
Before the atmosphere could become any stranger, Zhengxing stepped forward and looked toward Alexei.
"We'll have to trouble you with building Senior Danqing's residence."
Alexei shrugged. "Sure."
He didn't mind.
Building things was basically half of Minecraft in the first place, and he enjoyed it. There was something satisfying about putting together a structure people wanted to live in, especially now that he had more materials to experiment with.
Danqing, meanwhile, looked more and more confused as the conversation continued.
They were really planning to let this young man build his residence?
For some reason, that didn't sound reliable at all.
---
Since Alexei still had to build Danqing's residence, the group headed straight back to Qingxue's courtyard. The spirit vessel was still carrying all the supplies they had bought, and nobody wanted to unload everything at the docks only to move it again afterward.
Yan ended up taking charge of entertaining Danqing while Alexei dealt with the materials. Out of everyone present, she was the one most familiar with him, and her newly accepted disciple also happened to be his junior's relative.
By the time the vessel descended into the courtyard, Alexei noticed that most of the snow had already been cleared away. Small footprints crisscrossed the remaining patches near the walls and pathways, making it obvious the spirit monkeys had been busy while everyone was gone.
Maybe I should reward them later.
Danqing stepped off the vessel and slowly looked around the courtyard.
Qingxue's residence stood beside the frozen pond, while Alexei's house sat a short distance away beneath a layer of snow. The pavilion at the center of the courtyard tied everything together and gave the place a quiet, lived-in feel, though nothing about it resembled the grand grounds of a cultivation sect.
What caught Danqing's eye instead were the black cubic containers scattered around the courtyard. There were dozens of them, all identical. At first glance they looked like ordinary iron containers, but after studying them for a while, he still couldn't tell what purpose they served.
"Come with me first," Yan said, gesturing toward the corridor near the edge of the courtyard. "Alexei will be busy unloading things for a while anyway. We might as well drink tea while we wait."
She led the group forward, Zhengxing and the others following behind her as they entered the long corridor connecting the residences.
Danqing ran his eyes along the wooden structure as they walked. The style resembled the traditional architecture found throughout the Profound Sky Continent, yet something about it felt different enough to stand out.
"This construction method is interesting," he remarked after a moment. "It doesn't use traditional joinery."
He was correct. The corridor only imitated the appearance of mortise-and-tenon construction. The beams and supports were too clean, as though each piece had been cut to exactly the same dimensions before being assembled together.
The corridor itself wasn't very long, and before long the group arrived outside Yan's residence.
"This wall is transparent!" Ying blurted out as she reached toward the glass.
Without the snowflakes tapping softly against the surface, she might have walked straight into it thinking the entrance was open air.
Yan glanced at her. "Alexei built this place. If you want one later, ask him yourself."
Ying gave a distracted nod, then paused halfway through the motion.
"He built this?"
"Yes."
"Seriously?"
Yan looked at her strangely. "Why would I joke about that?"
Ying stared at the building again, then toward the distant figure unloading supplies from the spirit vessel.
"But he looks so normal."
"Most people do."
---
As soon as Danqing followed Yan through the doorway into her residence, he felt the surrounding spiritual energy thicken so sharply that he unconsciously slowed to a stop.
For a moment, he thought he had sensed it wrong.
He stepped back outside, only to find the spiritual energy returning to normal levels. Frowning slightly, he stroked his beard before stepping inside again, and the dense spiritual energy washed over him once more.
How was that possible?
The difference between inside and outside was so extreme that it shouldn't have existed within the span of a single doorway. Even some cultivation grounds specifically designed for gathering spiritual energy weren't this exaggerated.
"Mengyao, take Ying to see where she'll be staying and help her get settled in" Yan said to her disciple.
As Mengyao led Ying away, Yan guided the remaining group farther inside toward a low table arranged near the center of the residence. The entire area resembled a small indoor garden more than an ordinary room, with spiritual plants growing neatly along the edges and faint spiritual mist lingering in the air.
After everyone sat down, she headed through a side door into what looked like it had originally been a cultivation chamber. At some point, however, it had been converted into a small tea garden, and several spiritual tea plants were now growing inside.
Danqing sat down at the table, but his attention remained fixed on the spiritual energy surrounding the residence.
The deeper he had walked into the room, the denser the spiritual energy had become. Even here, at the table in the middle of the grassy area, the concentration was already at least ten times greater than outside. By his estimate, it had already reached the level found in the fringe regions of the outer regions, and that realization made his expression grow more serious.
At first, he suspected a Spirit Gathering Array, but the idea quickly fell apart under closer inspection. A formation powerful enough to maintain this level of density would have to draw spiritual energy from the surrounding land across several kilometers. Any cultivator with decent perception would be able to sense the flow of energy converging toward the center of the array.
But there was no flow here.
The spiritual energy inside the residence was calm to the point of feeling unnatural, like a lake without the slightest ripple. It didn't feel gathered from the outside world at all. If anything, it felt as though the energy was simply being produced within the residence itself.
He slowly glanced around the table.
Zhengxing, Quan, and even the disciples appeared unconcerned, as though this environment was ordinary to them. None of them showed even the slightest reaction to the terrifying spiritual density around them, which only made him more cautious about revealing his thoughts.
The questions rising in his mind were swallowed back down.
Whatever method was being used here, it was something these people considered normal. Asking directly would only expose his own ignorance, so he kept his expression steady and continued observing the residence around him.
The room was surprisingly simple. There weren't many decorations, and everything had been arranged neatly without any pointless extravagance, yet the entire place still felt comfortable and inviting. He had to admit that Yan clearly knew how to live well.
As he sat at the low table, he only needed to glance to the side to see the distant mountains beyond the enormous glass wall stretching across one side of the room. Snow drifted steadily outside, but the warmth inside remained stable, without the slightest trace of cold.
Even the grass beneath him had been maintained with extreme care. With eyesight sharpened through centuries of cultivation, he could normally spot the smallest imperfections at a glance, yet after looking around the residence, he still couldn't find a single speck of dust.
His gaze drifted toward the stack of books sitting on the table nearby.
The books showed clear signs of repeated use, with folded page corners marking different sections throughout the text. It was enough for him to tell that Yan spent a considerable amount of time studying them, and the thought earned a quiet nod of approval from him. A fellow alchemist who remained this dedicated even in private was rare. In many ways, the constant pursuit of profound knowledge was no different from cultivation itself.
With that thought in mind, he reached over and picked up the top book.
"The Cold-Hearted Master's Secret Passion."
His hand paused.
After staring at the title for a moment, he slowly opened the book and skimmed a random section.
"...her fingers trembled as they brushed across his cheek, and the frozen heart she had carried for three centuries finally began to thaw..."
The room fell strangely quiet.
He closed the book, then calmly picked up another.
"Forbidden Love in the Alchemy Pavilion."
His expression stiffened slightly.
Then he picked up a third.
"My Sect Leader Can't Possibly Be This Handsome."
Across the table, Zhengxing and Quan both looked away at almost the same time, neither seeming particularly interested in speaking up.
The two of them already knew that Yan enjoyed reading romance novels in her spare time. It was an open secret within the sect's inner circle by now. Unfortunately, she also had a habit of leaving them wherever she finished reading.
And today, of all days, she had forgotten to clean them up.
Danqing returned the books to the table just as Yan walked back out from the tea garden carrying a small wooden tea box in her hands.
The moment she stepped into the room, she sensed that something felt off. Danqing was looking at her with an unusually complicated expression, while Zhengxing and Quan both seemed oddly tense.
He probably noticed the spirit stone lanterns.
Without showing any reaction on her face, she walked over and placed the tea box onto the table. At the same time, her sleeve brushed across the stack of books, sweeping all of the romance novels into her storage bracelet.
The movement was so natural that if someone hadn't been specifically watching for it, they probably wouldn't have noticed.
She kept her expression calm, though inwardly she relaxed slightly.
Good thing I noticed in time. That would have been embarrassing.
---
At the underground base beneath the house, Alexei dumped the newly acquired ingots into the automated smelting system while thinking about the limitations of his pickaxe enchantments.
The Smelting enchantment only worked on raw ores. Whenever he mined crude copper or crude iron, they still came out as crude materials instead of refined ingots, and Fortune didn't seem to affect them at all. The only thing the pickaxe really did was convert the metals from the Profound Sky Continent into MC ingots so they could be used with the crafting system.
Once the metals were loaded into the furnaces, his attention shifted to another problem he had been putting off for weeks.
The spirit stones were starting to accumulate faster than expected. If he didn't set up a proper storage system soon, the entire base would end up overflowing with materials.
The real issue was deciding where to build it.
He couldn't just dig out a random section underground and start adding rooms wherever there was space. The base already followed a rough layout, and if he kept expanding without any planning, the entire place would slowly turn into a disorganized maze.
After thinking it over for a while, he decided to replace the wooden chests connected to the automated sorting system with transmission ender chests instead. Since they shared inventory space with ordinary ender chests, he would only need to carry a single ender chest while exploring to gain access to the entire storage network beneath the base. Anything placed inside would automatically be sorted and distributed through the item management system without requiring any additional work from him.
The only real downside was that the ender chests would no longer function as storage containers and would instead act as transfer nodes within the system. Still, that was a compromise he could accept.
Regular chests, on the other hand, weren't suitable for storing spirit stones in the first place. They simply lacked the capacity he needed, and manually sorting through them later would become a headache quickly. Since spirit stones also weren't Minecraft items, they wouldn't despawn after sitting on the ground for long periods like dropped blocks normally would.
Because of that, his plan was to route every spirit stone through a series of droppers into a dedicated storage chamber carved specifically for the purpose. A simple 6×8×6 room would be more than enough for now.
The design itself wasn't complicated, but building and wiring everything together still took time. By the time he finished carving out the low-grade spirit stone storage area and connecting all the redstone components to the main sorting system, nearly an hour had already passed.
As for the mid-grade, high-grade, and supreme-grade spirit stones, he decided to leave those storage areas for later. There was no point building them now when he barely had any stones to store in the first place.
When he returned to the main crafting area, the metals he had placed into the furnace earlier had already finished smelting.
He walked over and opened the output chest.
[Profound Heavy Gold Ingot ×1]
[Silver Radiance Iron Ingot ×1]
[Cloud Essence Ingot ×5]
[Copper Ingot ×646]
Profound heavy gold had a dark golden color that made it easy to distinguish from ordinary gold. According to Duan, it weighed about the same, but its hardness exceeded black iron by nearly 30%, which made it a common material for forging weapons and magical treasures throughout the Eastern Territories.
After assimilating it, Alexei checked the nearby crafting table to see what recipes had unlocked. The results were mostly what he expected. Profound heavy gold functioned almost identically to black iron when it came to crafting, so the usual recipes for tools, weapons, and armor were all available.
Next came silver radiance iron and cloud essence.
Silver radiance iron looked somewhat similar to platinum and turned out to be fairly straightforward after assimilation. It was lighter than ordinary iron while retaining roughly the same durability, but otherwise behaved like a normal crafting material.
Cloud essence was different.
The material itself was pure white and so light that it barely felt like he was holding anything at all. Curious, he opened the crafting menu after assimilating it and froze when his eyes landed on one particular recipe.
[Cloud Essence Sword]Attack Damage: -1
He stared at the interface for several seconds before looking back at the material in his hand.
"...What?"
At first, he thought the system had bugged out somehow, but curiosity got the better of him, and he crafted the sword anyway just to confirm it for himself.
The weapon that appeared in his hand was completely white and flexible to an almost ridiculous degree. The blade bent so easily that it looked less like a weapon and more like some kind of toy.
Then he checked the stats again.
It was still negative one attack damage.
He had no idea how that was even supposed to work.
"If I hit something with this, does it heal them instead?"
There was only one way to find out, so he headed straight for the mob farm.
Unfortunately, the sword didn't heal anything, though that was probably for the best. His base attack stat was already over seven, so losing one point from the sword still left him dealing more than six damage per hit.
Still, the sword left him wondering what would happen if someone with zero base attack tried to use it. Unfortunately, there was no real way to test that. Any cultivator gained base stats through cultivation, while ordinary mortals probably wouldn't even be able to lift the weapon properly.
He pushed the thought aside and returned to the crafting area to test cloud essence tools and armor.
The results somehow turned out even worse than the sword.
When he tried mining stone with a cloud essence pickaxe, the block didn't react at all. After standing there swinging for nearly thirty seconds, he gave up and accepted that cloud essence tools simply couldn't mine blocks.
The armor wasn't much better. Its protection was roughly comparable to leather armor, which meant it was barely useful in the first place. Since he only had nine ingots available, he settled on crafting a helmet and boots, each of which provided a single armor point.
Unfortunately, the equipment also came with additional modifiers.
Armor Toughness: -1Knockback Resistance: -1
He stared at the screen for a moment before letting out a sigh.
"So not only is this stuff fragile, it also makes me easier to kill."
Even so, he still fused the helmet and boots with Nether Stars.
[Level 1239 → Level 239]
The fusion consumed a huge amount of stored experience, but he felt it was worth the cost. Cloud essence might have been useless in Minecraft, but according to Duan, it was an excellent supplementary material for forging magical treasures. Once Duan started incorporating it into his work, the quality of the sect's artifacts would naturally rise along with it.
And better artifacts meant stronger enchantments. Stronger enchantments, in turn, meant more options for Alexei to extract.
By the time he finished thinking it through, he could already see where this was heading. If the sect wanted to continue developing, artifact forging would have to become one of its main priorities.
Right now, relying on Duan and Jianqiang alone was still manageable because the sect barely had any members to begin with. The two of them could handle custom orders and small production batches without much trouble, but that would only work for so long. Once the sect started expanding, the demand for weapons, armor, and artifacts would increase along with it, and there was no way two artificers could keep up with that kind of workload by themselves.
If they wanted every disciple equipped properly in the future, then the sect would need a much larger forging operation, which also meant recruiting and training more artificers sooner or later.
Still, that was a problem for the future. At the moment, the entire sect didn't even have twenty members yet.
Ch. 7828 May
Finding a place for Danqing's residence wasn't difficult since there were barely any usable spots on the mountain to begin with. About 300 meters away from Yan's residence, there was a relatively flat stretch of land surrounded by bamboo, and compared to the rest of the terrain, it needed very little work before construction could even begin.
When Yan's residence had first been built, she had considered using this area herself. The bamboo grove was quiet, the scenery was decent, and apparently the location also had good feng shui or whatever cultivation principles people used to judge these things. In the end, though, she had chosen the area closer to Qingxue's courtyard instead since it was simply more convenient to live near the others.
That left the bamboo grove open for Danqing, which worked out well enough for everyone involved.
As Alexei stood near the edge of the grove with his hands in his pockets, his attention was focused less on the location itself and more on how much of his abilities he wanted to reveal. Danqing had already seen the spirit stone lanterns back in the sect, so there was no point pretending the old man hadn't noticed something unusual by now. The real question was whether he should keep acting like everything was just some strange cultivation method or stop bothering to hide it altogether.
Before he could make up his mind, Yan stepped closer and leaned toward his ear.
"Don't worry. Senior Danqing doesn't have any bad intentions. He wants to join the sect."
Alexei shifted sideways to put some distance between them before giving her an annoyed look.
"You know you can just speak normally, right? We're not in a spy movie."
Yan looked at him curiously. "What's a movie?"
Alexei paused for a moment before answering, "Basically a recorded illusion. People watch stories played out through moving images."
"And these spy movies involve people whispering at each other for no reason?"
"Yes."
A faint smile appeared on her face. "That does sound entertaining."
"That's not the point."
Not far away, Danqing stood with his hands clasped behind his back while pretending very hard not to hear the conversation taking place almost right in front of him.
At least use a sound barrier, he thought helplessly. I'm standing right here.
Yan had already explained his situation earlier back at her residence anyway. He had been straightforward about why he came, what he was capable of, and what he wanted from the sect. Realistically, there wasn't much reason to hide those things in the first place. If someone intended to cultivate a successor within another sect, being secretive about it would only make people more suspicious.
The explanation left Yan feeling somewhat embarrassed. She had spent nearly a century unknowingly benefiting from a grandmaster alchemist's generosity without ever realizing who he was. Still, once the embarrassment faded, she had to admit this was an incredible opportunity for the sect.
In the Eastern Territories, it was almost impossible to find a powerful expert willing to protect a sect while asking for nothing in return. Most cultivators at that level either demanded resources, influence, or direct authority. Someone like Danqing, who only wanted to find a suitable successor for his inheritance, was a fortune most sects could only dream about.
More importantly, Zhengxing trusted him.
That mattered more to Yan than Danqing's cultivation or status. The Sect Master had always possessed an almost frightening ability to judge character, which was why every potential disciple was brought to him before officially joining the sect. No matter how talented someone appeared, they would never be accepted if Zhengxing sensed something wrong with them.
With Yan clearly unconcerned, Alexei stopped worrying about the situation as well.
Danqing, meanwhile, was still trying to make sense of Alexei's abilities.
The Profound Sky Continent was filled with cultivators born with unusual innate talents. Some possessed overwhelming affinity toward certain elements, while others had abnormal physiques or naturally heightened senses. However strange those abilities seemed, they still followed recognizable principles in the end. They could usually be traced back to known divine abilities or established cultivation laws.
Alexei's abilities felt completely different.
He had already seen the boy pull out all kinds of strange things before, from heavy metal blocks to oddly shaped tools, so none of that surprised him anymore. What he still couldn't understand, however, was the bread.
It had been absurdly heavy.
At first, he had assumed he was mistaken, but after seeing it multiple times, he could no longer dismiss it as an illusion. No matter how he thought about it, bread simply shouldn't weigh more than a grown man.
And that was only part of it.
Even the spirit stone lanterns scattered throughout the residence had apparently been made by the boy himself.
The more he thought about everything he had seen since arriving here, the less sense any of it made. Yet despite all that confusion, he still couldn't find a single reason to believe the boy was lying.
"Alright," Alexei said as he rolled his shoulders and pulled a wooden pickaxe from his inventory. "Let's get started. Though honestly, you probably don't need a cultivation chamber anymore."
Danqing blinked at him. "I don't?"
"You already said cultivation doesn't mean much to you now, right? If that's the case, there's no point wasting space on one."
"Ah... that's true enough."
Alexei nodded. "I'll turn the room into a tea garden instead. Feels like something you'd get some use out of."
Danqing stroked his beard as he considered it. The idea wasn't bad.
Tea saplings usually took three or four years before they started producing worthwhile leaves, but that amount of time meant very little to cultivators. More importantly, the spiritual energy inside Yan's residence was so dense that even now he still couldn't fully understand how it was possible. In an environment like this, growing spirit tea was more than feasible.
His thoughts drifted back to the Frostclear Tea Yan had served earlier. Mid-grade Earth-tier spirit tea was a treasure most cultivators would never even get the chance to taste, yet she had served it as casually as ordinary tea. Even now, just remembering the flavor left him feeling emotional.
If this tea garden could eventually produce even Yellow-tier spirit tea on a regular basis, that alone would already be an incredible luxury.
"A tea garden sounds perfect," he said with a nod.
Alexei got to work.
---
Three hours later, the residence was mostly complete.
Danqing had spent the entire afternoon watching the construction, and by the end of it, he no longer knew whether he was witnessing architecture or artificing. The speed alone made no sense. A project that should have taken weeks of planning and labor had been assembled in a matter of hours, yet what unsettled him even more was the way the boy built.
There were no measurements, joinery, or calculations involved. Alexei simply placed one cube after another, yet somehow they connected perfectly on their own, forming walls, floors, and ceilings as the residence gradually took shape.
Danqing couldn't make sense of it at all. The materials alone were strange enough already. He recognized wood, stone, and glass among them, but some of the others had textures and properties he had never seen before.
Now the two of them stood inside the section that had been set aside as a tea garden while Alexei finished the final preparations. The space itself was fairly small, only large enough for a few rows of tea plants, but he still approached the setup with the same strange seriousness he applied to everything else.
First, he dug into the ground and buried an upside-down stone stair beneath the soil. When he poured water over it, the water didn't spread outward and instead remained suspended neatly within the block itself, as though some invisible force were holding it in place. After confirming it had worked, he stacked a cobblestone wall on top and mounted a mid-grade spirit stone lantern above it.
He then dug two openings into the ceiling and installed redstone blocks and redstone lamps inside them. The lamps lit up, filling the tea garden with a steady glow.
Danqing looked up at the ceiling for a long moment before asking, "Those are redstone lamps?"
"Yeah. They're powered by redstone."
"I see."
In truth, he understood nothing at all, but after several hours of listening to Alexei explain things, he had already learned that asking further questions usually only left him more confused than before.
"Only two steps left," Alexei said as he pulled an enchanted netherite hoe from his inventory.
The tool drew Danqing's attention. The metal carried an almost crystalline sheen beneath the light, while faint purple runes shifted across its surface.
Alexei swung the hoe toward the patch of dirt in the center of the tea garden.
Shhhhk.
The entire area flipped over at once. Across the full 7×9 space, neat rows of farmland appeared instantly, the soil already tilled and moist as if it had just been prepared by an experienced farmer. The whole process finished in less than a second.
Moisture I automatically hydrated the soil during tilling, while Tilling V expanded the effect across the entire field. The larger range consumed additional durability, but considering how efficient the result was, the cost was practically negligible.
At first, the explanation behind the enchantments struck him as oddly specific. Magical tools designed purely for farming seemed somewhat ridiculous for cultivators, but after giving it more thought, he realized the idea actually made perfect sense.
Cultivators depended heavily on agricultural resources in the first place. Every sect consumed enormous quantities of spirit grain, medicinal herbs, and spirit vegetables on a daily basis, so tools that could improve farming efficiency would naturally be valuable.
If farming sects learned about tools like these, they would probably become popular very quickly.
The more he considered it, the more absurd Alexei's situation seemed.
This boy's talents were completely wasted on combat. With creations like these, he could likely change the cultivation world's agricultural industry entirely.
Before Danqing could continue that line of thought, Yan walked over carrying a jade box in her hands and passed it to Alexei.
"Here are the spirit tea seeds from outside the Verdant Vine Mystic Realm. We collected them a while ago, and I've been using bone meal to speed up their growth, so we still have more than enough."
She held the box out toward Alexei, but before he could take it, Danqing stepped forward and cleared his throat lightly.
"Actually, I have a few tea seeds of my own. If you don't mind, I'd like to handle the cultivation personally."
Alexei looked at him with some surprise. "You're into tea cultivation?"
Danqing smiled faintly. "I know a little."
In truth, tea cultivation had been one of his hobbies for centuries. He understood which varieties grew best in different spiritual environments, how changes in soil and spiritual energy affected flavor, and which cultivation methods produced the finest leaves.
After seeing the spiritual energy inside this residence, he had realized how valuable this farmland was. Using land like this to grow ordinary tea would be an incredible waste. Even without the rare environmental conditions required for higher-grade spirit teas, the spiritual energy here was already dense enough for Yellow-tier spirit tea to grow successfully.
If the conditions remained stable long enough, even Profound-tier spirit tea might eventually become possible.
Alexei, however, didn't seem particularly interested. He simply shrugged and said, "Sure. Go ahead. I don't know anything about tea anyway."
Yan handed the jade box back to Danqing before stepping aside to give him room.
The old alchemist crouched beside the farmland and spread out his spiritual sense to inspect the soil. The moisture was nearly perfect, the spiritual energy density was far beyond anything he would normally expect in a residence.
The more he examined it, the more satisfied he became.
This place was made for cultivating spirit tea.
---
With the tea garden finished, there were only a few minor details left to take care of. Most of the furniture had already been handled since Quan had gone down to the mountain marketplace earlier to buy beds, tables, chairs, and other household supplies, and he was probably on his way back by now.
While waiting, Alexei walked into the main living area and pulled an item frame from his inventory. After hanging it on the wall, he placed a golden clock inside, one of the more unnecessarily fancy things he had crafted so far. The golden surface reflected the lantern light while the hands ticked steadily away.
"Done," he said as he stepped back for a final look.
He let out a slow breath, feeling fairly satisfied with the result. The corridor connecting to Qingxue's courtyard could always be added later since it was more of a convenience feature than anything necessary.
As Alexei relaxed, Danqing continued walking through the residence at an unhurried pace, quietly examining the details around him. The craftsmanship was flawless from top to bottom. The walls were smooth, the floors perfectly level, and every room had been laid out with a clear sense of purpose.
What surprised him even more was how comfortable the residence felt.
The spiritual energy flowed naturally through every room without the slightest obstruction, and despite the complete lack of visible formation arrays, the lighting and temperature somehow remained balanced as well. He spent several minutes inspecting different parts of the residence, but no matter where he looked, he couldn't find anything that explained how it all worked.
"This exceeds my expectations entirely," he admitted after a while. "Your innate ability truly is remarkable."
Alexei scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Building stuff is basically half the game." The words slipped out before he caught himself. "Uh, forget I said that."
---
Evening had already settled over the mountain, and streaks of orange and purple stretched across the sky as Alexei made his way back down from the courtyard.
Under normal circumstances, he probably would have stopped to appreciate the view for a moment, but after spending hours building almost nonstop, he no longer had the energy for it. Physically, he felt fine thanks to Minecraft mechanics, but the constant concentration had left his mind exhausted in a way that was difficult to ignore.
Even so, he still had a few things he wanted to finish before resting for the night.
After returning to his house, Alexei headed underground to the hidden chamber beneath it, where the zombified piglin farm was still operating as usual. From there, he walked over to the Nether portal mechanism he had been meaning to modify earlier and replaced the original water bucket setup with powdered snow collected from the cauldron in Qingxue's courtyard.
The change itself didn't matter much since powder snow worked just as well for extinguishing the portal connection, but the mechanism looked cleaner afterward, and despite how minor the improvement was, he found the result far more satisfying.
Once he finished checking that everything was functioning properly, he left the piglin tower behind and made his way toward the newly completed spirit stone storage chamber.
The moment he stepped inside, his eyes landed on the accumulated harvest.
It was impressive.
In just half a day, another small pile of low-grade spirit stones had accumulated beneath the dispenser.
He stood there for a while, watching the dispenser spit out one spirit stone after another. Even after seeing it so many times, the feeling was still satisfying. Earning resources without needing to do anything really did feel addictive.
For a moment, he wanted to collect everything and count how much had accumulated already, but he held himself back. If he let the pile grow for another ten days or half a month, the final result would probably look ridiculous.
The thought alone was enough to put him in a better mood.
He remained there a little longer. There was something relaxing about watching the system continue operating on its own, especially knowing it would keep producing resources whether he paid attention to it or not.
Eventually, he turned around and headed back upstairs.
After taking off his outer robe and tossing it onto a nearby chair, he collapsed onto the bed with a tired sigh and stared blankly at the ceiling for a few seconds.
Then he frowned.
Something felt off.
It took him a moment to realize why. He felt like he had forgotten something important, but no matter how many times he went through everything he had done today, nothing seemed missing. The mob farm was operating normally, the spirit stone storage chamber was working properly, and Danqing's residence had already been completed.
As far as he could tell, everything was fine.
After thinking about it for another minute without getting anywhere, he gave up.
"If it's important, I'll remember tomorrow."
He pulled the blanket over himself, closed his eyes, and drifted off to sleep.
---
The next morning, Alexei jolted awake and sat upright.
"Shit."
He had forgotten to collect the experience orbs from the mob farm yesterday.
An entire day's worth of XP had probably been sitting there untouched overnight while he wasted time dealing with construction work, spirit stones, and everything else that had distracted him.
He rubbed his face with a groan before forcing himself out of bed. "How the hell do you forget something that important?"
He got dressed as quickly as possible, running a hand through his messy hair before hurrying outside.
By the time he reached the floating island, the morning cultivation session had already begun. Qingxue was standing near the entrance, and she glanced at him as he hurried over.
"Overslept?"
"Forgot to take care of something yesterday."
Qingxue nodded and gestured toward the pavilion without asking further questions, which he appreciated.
Ying and Mengyao were already seated on their cushions with their eyes closed, circulating their cultivation techniques as spiritual energy drifted around them in faint currents. Alexei settled onto his own cushion and let out a slow breath, pushing the lingering annoyance from his mind before beginning the Verdant Lamp Cultivation Method.
The moment the technique started circulating, the surrounding spiritual energy reacted.
Streams of qi flowed toward him from every direction, gathering around him far more densely than when he had first started cultivating. Part of it came from the spirit stone lamps placed throughout the island, but the cultivation technique itself was also effective. Compared to ordinary methods, the Verdant Lamp Cultivation Method amplified his absorption speed to an almost unreasonable degree.
No wonder high-grade cultivation arts were so valuable.
Even with all those advantages, he could still absorb only a small fraction of the spiritual energy around him, and the difference in spiritual roots became clearer every time he cultivated. His aptitude probably would have improved by now if he didn't spend XP so carelessly, although that wasn't entirely intentional. Sometimes he simply forgot to collect it, like yesterday, and whenever he accumulated a decent amount, he usually ended up spending it together with Nether Stars to unlock new recipes anyway.
As a result, despite cultivating with a Heaven-tier technique that most cultivators would fight to the death over, his absorption speed was comparable to Mengyao.
Yan had already explained the reason for it. His foundation was too poor for the technique to fully display its potential.
The Brightglow Fruit had improved his aptitude to some extent, but according to Yan, treasures like that were far more effective on cultivators who already possessed decent spiritual roots to begin with. Someone like him, whose aptitude had started near the bottom, could only benefit so much from it.
The explanation had been unpleasant to hear at first, and although it still bothered him occasionally, there was little point dwelling on it now.
He continued circulating spiritual energy while emptying his mind, and before he realized it, several hours had already passed. By the time Qingxue's voice pulled him out of meditation, the sky outside had already darkened.
He opened his eyes and checked his cultivation status out of habit. But looking at that tiny amount of progress, he honestly couldn't understand how most cultivators managed to spend years sitting in meditation. To the cultivator themselves, those years passed in the blink of an eye once they entered deep meditation, but years were still years. He couldn't help feeling that there had to be more productive ways to spend that time.
"Candy time," Ying announced cheerfully as she walked over.
Alexei took a piece of candy from his inventory and handed it to her. She tossed it into her mouth with a satisfied smile while Mengyao stepped forward to wait for hers as well.
After handing Mengyao her candy and receiving a soft word of thanks in return, he was about to stand when he noticed Ying still staring at him.
"You're always busy," she complained while crossing her arms. "Do you ever relax?"
"Not really."
"That's kind of sad."
"Probably."
Before Ying could continue, Alexei summoned his flying sword and stepped onto it, rising into the air as he headed toward the mob farm. Behind him, Mengyao's calm voice drifted across the platform.
"You should get used to it. He's always like this."
----------
[POV: Coldstream Sect]
At the Coldstream Sect's station near the Nether portal, the atmosphere had started to turn strange.
Several elders stood inside the temporary warehouse, looking over the piles of equipment stacked along the walls. There were swords, armor pieces, and shields everywhere. Although the artifacts had already lost their spiritual essence, it was still easy to recognize that they had originally been high-quality items.
One of the elders hesitated for a moment before speaking, "Sect Master... don't you think we've collected a bit too many artifacts?"
The Sect Master didn't answer immediately.
Only now, after standing inside the warehouse and seeing everything gathered together, did he realize how ridiculous the situation had become.
Earlier that morning, a steward had already reported that the warehouse was full again and asked for permission to expand it. At the time, he had been too occupied borrowing spirit stones from every available source to think much about it.
But looking at the current inventory now, even he felt his scalp go numb.
Nearly 8,000 golden swords taken from pig demons.
More than three hundred complete or partial armor sets.
The amount was already enough to equip every Core Formation cultivator stationed in Verdantree City, and there would still be a large surplus left over afterward.
The elder's earlier words sounded almost absurd to him.
A bit too many?
That description barely scratched the surface.
Taking a slow breath to calm himself, he turned toward the others.
"How is the cleanup operation inside the realm progressing?"
The elders exchanged glances before one of them answered with some embarrassment.
"We're not entirely sure. Most of us have been busy securing loans these past few days, so nobody has been paying close attention to the situation inside."
The Sect Master's expression stiffened slightly.
"Then summon the supervising deacon. I want a complete report."
---
Inside a room near the gate to the ancient realm, Shu felt like he had reached the peak of his life.
Ever since the cleanup operation began, everything had gone his way. The three elders overseeing the operation had personally recommended him for promotion, and because of that, he had been appointed supervising deacon in charge of the ancient battlefield entrance.
It was a position countless deacons dreamed about. Not only did it come with authority and prestige, but it also gave him access to resources and connections that ordinary cultivators would never have a chance to touch.
Most importantly, this was only the beginning.
As long as he performed well enough to leave a good impression on the Sect Master, there was no reason his status couldn't continue rising in the future.
Naturally, he believed this promotion was largely the result of his own hard work and competence. Although being lucky enough to arrive at the right place at the right time had certainly helped, he considered luck to be part of strength anyway.
The more he thought about it, the happier he became.
By the time the thought crossed his mind, he had already started grinning foolishly at nothing in particular.
"Um... Deacon Wang?"
The voice startled him out of his thoughts.
He blinked and realized he had been staring blankly into space with a foolish grin on his face. A thin line of drool had nearly formed at the corner of his mouth, and he quickly wiped it away before turning toward the nearby disciple.
"What is it?"
The disciple looked slightly nervous under his gaze. "The Grand Elder sent me to call you to the warehouse. The Sect Master wishes to speak with you."
For a moment, Shu thought he had misheard him.
"The Sect Master wants to see me?"
"Yes, Deacon."
Shu shot to his feet.
"Why would you say something that important so casually?" he snapped while hurriedly straightening his robes. "You should've led with that."
The disciple opened his mouth, but Shu was already halfway out the door.
His heart pounded wildly as he made his way through the corridors toward the warehouse. Even though he tried his best to maintain a calm and dignified appearance, excitement continued bubbling inside him.
After all, what else could this mean besides recognition from the Sect Master himself?
If things continued like this, his future would be limitless.
Perhaps he would become an elder someday. Perhaps he would find a beautiful dao companion. If his luck was good enough, he might even become one of the Sect Master's trusted confidants in the future.
The more he imagined it, the brighter his future seemed.
---
The moment Shu stepped into the temporary warehouse, he realized something was wrong.
The Sect Master stood at the center of the room with several elders gathered around him, and judging from their expressions, none of them were in a good mood. Some looked grim, others troubled, and the atmosphere inside the warehouse was heavy.
His confidence dropped.
This definitely didn't feel like the sort of meeting where people handed out praise or rewards.
"S-Sect Master," he said as he cupped his fists, "you were looking for me?"
At the same time, his mind began reviewing everything he had done over the past few days. He had been guarding the gate properly, carrying out his duties seriously, and following instructions without causing trouble, so he couldn't think of anything major he might have done wrong.
The Sect Master looked at him for a moment before speaking, "Let me ask you something first. How many pig demons are left in the Ancient Battlefield?"
Shu blanked for a second.
That was the question?
The tension in his chest eased, and he almost let out a laugh from relief.
"There's no need to worry about that. I inspect the battlefield every day, and the pig demon population hasn't decreased at all. No matter how many we kill, more keep appearing. We simply can't clear them out fast enough."
The moment those words left his mouth, the atmosphere in the room somehow became even heavier. Several elders stared at him with dark expressions, and one of them even looked like he wanted to strangle him on the spot.
"No need to worry?" an elder repeated slowly. "The fact that they cannot be exterminated is what we're worried about!"
Only then did Shu realize he had misunderstood the situation. The smile on his face stiffened.
The Grand Elder stepped forward at that moment and narrowed his eyes at him.
"Several days ago, we instructed you to send disciples deeper into the mystic realm for further investigation. What did they discover?"
Shu's mind went blank.
Investigation?
After a few seconds, he finally remembered.
The order had come around the time the three elders recommended him for promotion. Back then, most of the upper management had been busy securing loans, while he had been too excited about finally moving up in rank to pay much attention to anything else.
What was the point of getting promoted if you didn't celebrate properly?
So that very same afternoon, he had dragged several deacons with him to Verdantree City for drinks. By the time he stumbled back to camp later that night, thoroughly drunk and in an excellent mood, a disciple had tried to report something about the investigation to him.
Unfortunately, Shu had been far too intoxicated and annoyed to listen. By the next morning, he had forgotten about the investigation team.
Now, standing in front of the Sect Master and the assembled elders, he could feel sweat slowly forming on his forehead. There was no way he could admit the truth. Forgetting to send the team was one thing, but admitting it in front of the entire leadership was another matter. At best, his position in the sect would be finished. At worst...
He decided not to continue that line of thought.
Instead, his mind raced for an answer that sounded believable enough to satisfy them.
Then an idea appeared.
"The deeper regions are also filled with pig demons. The disciples reported that the deeper they traveled, the more pig demons they found. They stretch beyond the horizon without any visible end."
The moment those words left his mouth, the expressions of the Sect Master and elders changed. Several elders stiffened, while one of them even lost balance before catching himself against the table.
"This is bad," one elder muttered under his breath. "Far worse than we expected."
Shu blinked in confusion.
At first, he didn't understand why they were reacting so strongly, but after a moment of thought, he understood.
The sect had already borrowed an enormous amount of spirit stones to monopolize access to the mystic realm. If the pig demon population was truly endless, then the resources inside the realm would never become scarce enough to drive prices higher.
In other words, the sect's original plan had failed before it had even properly begun.
As that thought crossed his mind, he realized this might be an opportunity.
"Sect Master, I may have a solution."
Every gaze in the room shifted toward him.
The Sect Master narrowed his eyes. "Speak."
"What if we sell information about the mystic realm to the other sects? At a high enough price, we could recover the spirit stones we've already invested."
The hall fell silent once more.
The Sect Master's eyes slowly brightened as he considered the proposal.
"Go on."
Encouraged by the reaction, Shu quickly continued, "We don't even need to lie to them. We can simply describe the mystic realm truthfully. An ancient battlefield filled with gold, magical artifacts, purification pearls, and spirit stone lanterns capable of generating massive amounts of spiritual energy. Everything we say would be true, so even if they later discover that the resources are far more abundant than expected, they would have no legitimate reason to accuse us of deception."
The other elders had started smiling, though none of the expressions looked friendly. The mystic realm really did contain everything they intended to advertise. The problem was simply that there was too much of it. So much gold and so many artifacts had entered circulation that the value of everything had already collapsed, but technically, that had nothing to do with the Coldstream Sect.
They were only offering the other sects an opportunity to explore an ancient battlefield ahead of schedule. If those sects failed to consider something as basic as supply and demand before throwing spirit stones at the opportunity, that was hardly the Coldstream Sect's responsibility.
By the time that line of reasoning settled in, the Sect Master's expression had already shifted from troubled to satisfied.
"Excellent thinking."
His gaze lingered on Shu for a moment longer.
"What's your name?"
Shu straightened. "I'm Wang Shu, Sect Master. I entered the sect 420 years ago as an outer disciple after working as..."
"That will do," the Sect Master interrupted before Shu could continue any further. "You have done well."
He seemed to consider something briefly before giving a small nod.
"The outer sect currently lacks an elder. Once this matter is concluded, this contribution will be added to your record, and you will fill that position."
For a moment, Shu simply stared at him.
The promotion was so sudden that his thoughts nearly stopped working altogether. He still didn't fully understand why the Sect Master had decided to give up monopolizing the realm when it could continue generating spirit stones for the sect, but after being handed an opportunity like this, questioning the decision would have been pure stupidity.
He quickly lowered his head.
"I'm honored beyond measure. I won't disappoint the sect."
"See that you don't. Now go inform the disciples inside the realm. Tell them to cease operations at the Ancient Battlefield and return to the sect immediately."
"Yes, Sect Master!"
Shu left the warehouse. Behind him, the assembled elders watched his departing figure.
"That one can be entrusted with important responsibilities," one elder remarked.
Another nodded in agreement. "If the sect had more disciples with that kind of quick thinking, our future would be limitless."
The Sect Master smiled faintly after hearing their praise. "The Third, Fifth, and Ninth Elders did well this time. You found an excellent candidate."
As the conversation shifted, his expression turned serious again.
"What matters now is selling this information." His gaze swept across the group. "I will need all of you to visit the neighboring sects personally. Even if we fail to profit from this, we must at least recover our losses."
The elders exchanged glances, and before long, smiles began appearing on their faces.
None of them looked honest. They resembled merchants preparing to sell a worthless artifact at full price.
"No cultivator will be able to resist the temptation of an ancient battlefield filled with gold and treasures," one elder said confidently.
----------
[POV: Alexei]
Alexei sat in Danqing's reception hall staring at the enormous pill furnace in the center of the room. The thing was nearly two meters tall and covered in intricate engravings. Around it sat three smaller jade tables, each equipped with a smaller furnace and various tools for processing medicinal herbs.
Yan sat beside him looking too satisfied with herself, while Ying looked ready to start bouncing in excitement.
He slowly turned toward Yan.
"So let me make sure I understand this correctly. I came here to ask about alchemy recipes, and somehow I ended up becoming an alchemy student?"
Yan blinked innocently. "You agreed to it."
"I nodded once."
"You still agreed."
"That's not how consent works."
Yan ignored him.
The worst part was that he couldn't figure out where things had gone wrong. Earlier that afternoon, he had gone looking for Yan because his automated pill production setup was finally complete. The modified furnaces were working, the sorting mechanisms were finished, and the entire infrastructure was ready to go.
The only thing he lacked was recipes. So he found Yan at the pavilion to ask for help.
Unfortunately, Danqing had also been there.
After that, the entire conversation had somehow spiraled out of control. Danqing asked whether he was interested in alchemy, Yan gave him a look that was dangerously close to pleading, his brain stopped functioning for about three seconds, and before he realized what was happening, he had apparently agreed to attend alchemy lessons twice a month.
Now he was sitting in an alchemy hall while Yan looked smug about successfully tricking him into free labor.
Honestly, this was probably his own fault.
"This will be good for you. If you learn alchemy properly, you'll have a much easier time understanding how medicinal pills work."
"I don't really care how pills work," Alexei replied as he looked over the furnace room. "I just want to automate the production process so I never have to deal with it manually again."
Yan gave him a helpless look. "That's not how alchemy works."
"It could be."
Danqing glanced over at them while arranging ingredients near the main furnace, though he didn't seem surprised by the conversation anymore.
"Since you are only beginning your study of alchemy, we will start with observation first. Watch the refinement process today, and we can discuss the underlying principles afterward."
Alexei nodded, although he was already starting to regret agreeing to this.
"Then we will begin with a Ninth-Grade Healing Pill. It's one of the most common medicinal pills used by Qi Refining cultivators to treat minor injuries and accelerate recovery."
As Danqing spoke, he gestured toward the ingredients spread neatly across the table.
"The refinement process is divided into seven stages. The first step is ingredient preparation. Sixty grams of Bloodstop Grass, forty grams of Century Ginseng, thirty grams of Silverleaf Herb..."
Alexei tried to pay attention at first, but his focus started slipping as Danqing continued listing measurements, preparation methods, and handling instructions for each ingredient.
One herb had to be sliced at a precise angle. Another needed to be ground into powder, but not too finely or the spiritual essence would dissipate during refinement. The timing for adding ingredients also mattered, apparently, because mixing them in the wrong order could destabilize the entire pill furnace.
The whole thing sounded less like cultivation and more like an unnecessarily complicated cooking recipe where mistakes caused explosions and glowing soup.
Out of curiosity, he glanced over at Yan and found her watching the demonstration with complete concentration, as though every word Danqing said was fascinating.
He honestly didn't understand how she managed it.
"After preparing the base materials, you introduce them to the furnace in the proper sequence. Begin with the Bloodstop Grass and Silverleaf Herb over low heat. Maintain the temperature for roughly thirty seconds before adding the Century Ginseng. Once the ingredients begin reacting, you need to pay close attention to the spiritual energy fluctuations…"
After seeing how attentively the others were listening, Alexei tried to focus on the explanation again, but it quickly became clear that there was no way he would remember all of this after hearing it once. Danqing's explanation kept moving from one step to the next without pause.
Before long, his attention had already drifted elsewhere.
If furnaces could already process items automatically, then in theory, there should be a way to modify them further. Maybe he could connect the system to redstone somehow and automate temperature control entirely. Voice commands might even be possible if he experimented with command recognition through the interface.
"…and finally, once the medicinal essence has fully stabilized, you maintain high heat while guiding the pill formation with your spiritual energy. For a ninth-grade pill, the entire process should take around twelve minutes."
Danqing stepped back from the furnace and looked around the room.
"Now then. Would anyone like to try refining one yourselves?"
"I will," Yan said.
"Me too!" Ying added without hesitation.
The two of them turned toward Alexei, expecting him to participate as well.
He looked at the furnace sitting on the jade table, then at the medicinal ingredients laid out beside it. After listening to that explanation, there was no chance he was going to sit there manually adjusting temperatures and monitoring spiritual energy fluctuations by hand.
Fortunately, he didn't need to.
He reached forward and placed a hand against the surface of the furnace. The moment his fingers made contact, information flooded into his mind.
[Three Mysteries Azurelight Furnace:
Spiritual Circuit III
Essence Refinement I]
Alexei raised an eyebrow as he checked the furnace's information, and the expression made Yan suspicious.
"Why do I suddenly feel like you're about to do something troublesome?"
Alexei clicked his tongue. "You're really hurting my feelings here. I'm just trying to show it a little love."
Before anyone could question him further, he activated Assimilate. Experience points began draining from his reserves and flowing into the furnace.